KDs are designed/developed/inspired/mused/auto-suggested/indigested to make folks think; an especially uncommon experience among Democrats, Republicans, and jingoistic mainline denominationalists who continue to discourage dissent with their ever-threatening thought police.

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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

With
rationalizing thanks to Acts 1:26, I buy a lottery ticket every now and then.

That's what
happens when you haven't had a raise in four years, don't have a rich uncle,
and haven't threatened the book sales of Joel, Rick, or Joyce.

When I criticized
my dad for buying 'em when considering the odds of winning, he retorted,
"Consider the odds if you never buy any."

Anyway, a
pejorative pathology has been seizing my spirit because a little phrase keeps
popping up on the screen when I put my tickets into the machine that
verifies success or failure: "Sorry, Not a Winner."

Geez.

@#$%

I
was hydrating my mule the other day when a guy came up to me and said how
much he liked I Just Wanna
Ride (FTW).

Then he asked how
sales are going.

"Well,"
I said, "it usually takes up to two years before a..."

"That
bad," he interjected.

"Uh, yeah," I muttered.

"You didn't
write it for the money, did you?" he asked.

"Good
thing," I responded, "...but it would have been nice to make a few
bucks to help others, pay some old bills, and maybe have enough left over
to get that 110th anniversary edition of the FLHTCU or FLHTK that I
doubt's coming during PAM."

"If people
just get it in their hands," he ended while walking into the station,
"they'll really like it. Just get the word out!"

Sigh.

@#$%

I'm writing a new
one.

If you've been
reading KDs, you know it's about scratching the surface of Bible books
as I scratch the surface of my relationship with Jesus.

I've completed
about 15% of it; expecting to finish sometime next spring unless the Mayans
were right.

I hope I Just Wanna Ride (FTW) goes
viral before then so my publisher will publish it and I can go to Woodstock H-D
to...

@#$%

I was sitting
with a really famous Presbyterian pulpiteer who became our Senate's
chaplain in a coffee shop near San Francisco Theological Seminary about 25
years ago.

That's when I was
pretty famous myself and making more $ than anyone in my business deserves to
make while claiming to serve you
know who who said it's hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom
for you know why.

I gave away what
I didn't squander which is why...

Be that as it was/is, I
asked how I could get pewsitters to focus on Jesus and filter the church's
life and ministry through Him.

He said, "I
faced that problem when I was called to ___. The church was in disarray
and most relationships in the church - staff and officers and members
- were dysfunctional. So I suggested we take Holy Communion before
every board meeting and make it available every Sunday; and it wasn't long
before relationships were healed and the church started to grow as it let God
love it and started loving each other like He loved them."

It reminded me of
old Dr. Mac back in seminary who responded this way when asked what happens
during HC: "You get Christ better and then serve Him better."

I never
understood what that meant until
I stopped the unBiblical practice of quarterly or monthly
observance and went/go to the table as often as we got/get together for
worship or board meetings.

I don't know how
I missed it/Him before that: "Do this in remembrance of Me."

Admittedly, as
someone paid to be holy, I missed a lot of stuff/Him in a Matthew 23 kinda way.

@#$%

Our elders
have been on the same page at First ever since we started preceding our
meetings with the sacrament.

Our congregation
has been on the same page at First ever since we started including the
sacrament in every worship service.

Hmm.

There is
something to it/Him.

Or as I've
learned while scratching
the surface, the biggest of the big themes
of the Bible is, simply if sincerely, "Trust and obey, for there's no
other way to be happy in Jesus, but to..."

@#$%

The editor of one
of the PCUSA's best publications sent a tease about the October
edition.

PAM.

I wrote back,
"I'm glad you're adding humor to your rag."

Selah.

Putting it
another way juxtaposed to the preceding, only intimacy with Jesus overcomes
feeling like a loser.

The table is one
of His best ways to overcome...in a Psalm 131 kinda way.

Sacred music dedicated to
honoring God moves souls toward Him and aligns hearts with His.

While everybody
has preferred styles, some think their preferences are more sacred than others;
which, of course, is true to them but not true to divine revelation.

God created the
rainbow.

Diversity.

God created
different ways to get to know Him; or as Paul wrote, "There are varieties
of ways to..."

Unity amid
diversity.

For example,
there are so-called secular songs that can be understood in sacred ways; moving
souls to Him and aligning hearts with His.

Love songs come
to mind.

While some people
hear love songs and think only in terms of loving human relationships, other
people hear love songs and think about how they remind them of their
relationship with God.

The Song of Songs that
we'll get to later on comes to mind.

A contemporary
example is Adele's Don't You
Remember:

When will I see you again?

You left with no good-bye, not a single word was said.

No final kiss to seal anything.

I had no idea of the state we were in...

But don't you remember? Don't you remember?

The reason you loved me before.

Baby, please remember me once more.

When was the last time you thought of me?

Or have you completely erased me from your memory?...

Why don't you remember? Don't you remember?

The reason you loved me before.

Baby, please remember me once more.

When will I see you again?

That's what
Deuteronomy is all about; remembering who God is, what God has done, and what
God expects from those who know Him as God.

It's about being loved
by God and loving Him back.

Moses is about to
die.

Deuteronomy, more
than less, contains his last words about honoring God and aligning hearts with
His.

Specifically,
it's for His people who are about to move into the next chapter of their
relationship with Him.

As they are about
to cross over into the Promised Land, God speaks through Moses and,
essentially, says/sings rhetorically, "Don't you remember?..."

The big message
of Deuteronomy and the whole Bible is clear and conclusive.

People who
really, really, really trust God - not just pose - are blessed and overcome the
negatives of everything and everyone in a Psalm 37:25-28 and Matthew 7:24ff.
kinda way.

It's a simple
equation.

More God = more
wholeness, happiness, joy, and eternal security.

While we'll never
be pure and perfect in every way, never outgrowing our need for Jesus to save
us or fill in the gap between our depraved humanity and His incredibly and
inclusively loving divinity, we can be "more better than worse" and,
therefore, experience more of His favor/graces right now before then.

Isaiah said it so
well: "If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the
land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured."

As the old priest
said to the young priest in Monsignor,
"God provides our choices; but we ourselves must choose."

C.S. Lewis said
it's like standing at a bus stop. The bus comes. We decide to ride.

This book is a
final urging from God through Moses: "I have set before you life and
death, blessings and curses. Now choose life!...Love the Lord your God,
listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him!"

I have a friend
who often summarizes Biblical faith this way:

We sin!

God saves!

What a great deal!

Deuteronomy is
like a post-it on our souls.

Remember God!

It's like
sermons.

If it's worth
preaching once, it's worth preaching twice.

If it's not worth
preaching twice, it's not worthy preaching once.

"Sing them over again to
me..."

An old song
that's always new.

That's what this
book is all about; remembering and responding to that remembrance.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

I watched the film via YouTube
that appears to have incited Islamic hysteria and homicides.

It's awful.

Horrific acting.

Sophomoric script.

Hyperbolic.

Andy Warhol (RIP) or Soupy Sales
(RIP) could have done better.

If this film is truly responsible
for the hysteria and homicides rather than a rationalization for acting out
hatred for America in the Islamic fundamentalist world celebration of 9/11, it
proves a few points: (1) Muslims can dish it out to Jews and Christians but
can't take it; (2) Muslims are more emotionally fragile than Cubs fans watching
another White Sox run at the World Series; and (3) the pathetically
artless film's themes merit second thoughts.

Two questions.

Is the current Islamic response to
the film - not by all but by many - consistent with the factual character
and documented commentaries of their founder?

Are the equally barbarous behaviors
of "Christians" throughout history - not by all but by many -
consistent with the factual character and documented commentaries of Jesus?

Reflecting the
sense of audacious entitlement, defiance, and rebellion of the people
constantly complaining to Moses about everything including their hardships,
diet, living arrangements, and God's leadership through him, I'll never forget
how she rushed past my secretary into my study, plopped down in the chair in
front of my desk, exhaled, inhaled, and blurted, "I hate your beard!'

Though I didn't
take the bait and took the time to peel the onion to discover what was really
bothering her - her estranged son had a beard and she was transferring her
frustrations to me - I made a terrible mistake by offering, "If it will
make you feel better, I'll shave off my beard."

Unlike the
Nazirites of Numbers who symbolized their devotion to God and set the standard
for John the Baptist as well as succeeding generations of hippies by letting
their hair grow long along with other funky stuff with no regard to popular
fashions, I shaved off mine to curry her favor.

When I saw her
coming through the receiving line at the end of worship on the succeeding
Sunday, I expected her to shower me with affirmation and affection.

Instead, she
exhaled, inhaled, and blurted, "Now about your moustache!"

The Nazirites or
anyone else truly devoted to God would never curry favor with anyone at the
expense of their relationship with God; knowing everyone is going to be
responsible to God a lot longer than anyone else which makes establishing Him
as the #1 priority of life for eternity a no-brainer.

Even a jackass
can understand that; or as a prophet's jackass in Numbers explained to him when
tempted to curry a politician's scheme over the instructions of the Source, Starter,
Sovereign, and Savior, the only way to make it in this world and beyond is by
living out a familiar chorus: "Praise God from whom all blessings
flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye
heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

Or as God began
His summary of how to honor Him along with the consequences of doing and not
doing that at the beginning of the journey to the Promised Land, "No other
gods before Me...No idols...As for those who are not loyal to Me, there will be
bad consequences...As for those who are loyal to Me, they will experience My
loyal love."

Essentially,
Numbers is about life being a journey of getting closer and closer and closer
to God to experience His best in and
after time.

It shows how God
does not allow anyone to enter His Promised Land of peace and prosperity here
and now and hereafter apart from proving trust in Him through obedience to Him.

As a biker, I
often hear, "It's about the journey not destination."

Yes, I understand
that means to enjoy the trip; and Genesis from the very first chapter proves
the truth of those hats and shirts that sport, "Life is Good!"

And as Genesis
and Numbers and all of Holy Scripture verify, life is good when we trust and obey Him.

This life with
all its wanderings comes to an end; but eternity lasts, uh, forever; which is
why the Psalmist said, "You get 70 or 80 or more years in this life;
so number those days in the right way so life beyond those days will be everything
promised by Him."

Simply, trust and
obey right now to guarantee His best forever.

That's why
Numbers spends so much time organizing for the journey - counting, identifying
resources, considering who and what and how in a Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12
kinda way.

Even a jackass
knows you've gotta pack the right stuff to get where you want to go.

Everybody wants
to get to the Promised Land; and Numbers shows how to do it.

Monday, September 10, 2012

I was born again again last October 2011
during a week with Eugene and covenant brothers in Montana.

Agreeing with the
saint who said "a life lived for Jesus speaks louder than any verbal
testimony," several convictions related to the rebirth demand enfleshment
and have become a constant prayer since then as I wanna look up, stand up,
speak up, and act up for Him, as Calvinists used to say, to show the signs of
my salvation (i.e., to prove I'm really related to Him more than less):

1. John 17 -
There is nothing more ugly and dishonest to true discipleship than
pastors/people who love Jesus by separating themselves from other
pastors/people who love Jesus over anything apart from blasphemy against the
Holy Spirit. Even in contexts of blasphemy, we are called to be the good
leaven and call people from sin through confession and repentance for
redemption. While there is a place for monasticism, that is a particular
call for some but not most. Get out your copy of Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship. Simply,
the rest of us are to put on the armor, pray/labor to be oaks of righteousness,
and wage war against the enemy and not retreat into navelgazing little cliques
of smug self-righteousness. Besides, why leave one stinking denomination
for another stinking denomination when you already know the stink of your own
and can pray and labor to be a deodorant for Jesus? Oh, Oh, Oh, you
twwwyyyed. Hey, pal, take a look at the cross and stop worshiping your
navel! Don't you remember what Jesus commanded: "If anyone would
come after Me, they must deny themselves, take up their cross, and, then,
follow Me!"? C'mon, stop rationalizing your defections and divisions
like...

2. John 3:19-21 -
Unless it's a pastoral/personal/corporate confidentiality like
counseling/leading a staff member or anybody else who's having an
affair or dipping into the collection or watching porn on church
computers or something from sin through confession and repentance for
redemption, there are very, very, very few "secrets" or
"around-the-corner-whispering-conversations" that are not intended to
conceal sin. Most people who tell me not to talk about something want me
to hide/accommodate sin. For the most part - and it's just common sense -
if you can't say it publicly, it shouldn't be said. It's like meetings
that excuse people so others can talk about 'em behind their backs! Evil!
Evil! Evil! Jesus is quite clear about living in the light to
distinguish righteousness from evil.

3. Matthew 6:24 -
We gotta stop talk/action/non-action by claiming to be caught in the middle. Ain't
no such thing for Christians. We're either for Him or against Him or
trying/praying to figure out if we're for Him or against Him. God is not
double-minded about righteousness; and if we really love Him, we obey
Him. Period. Jesus said that. Being caught in the middle is
the excuse of cowards, miscreants, and...infidels/wolves in sheep's clothing:
"The way to spiritual power and favor with God is to be willing to put
away the weak compromises and the tempting evils to which we are prone to
cling. There is no Christian victory or blessing if we refuse to turn
away from the things that God hates...Even if your wife loves it, turn
away...Even if your husband loves it, turn away...Even if it is something that
has come to be accepted by our whole generation, turn away...Every Christian
holds the key to his or her own spiritual attainment...if he or she refuses to
hate sin and evil and wrong, our churches might as well be turned into lodges
or clubs" (Tozer).

4. Matthew 23
(especially Peterson's paraphrase/translation) - Shepherds don't follow sheep
because shepherds are called to, uh, undershepherd
after the pattern of Jesus the Good Shepherd as attested in Holy
Scripture. Read Matthew 23 very closely and you'll start barfing about
what's become of pastors like me. We're so ornamental, superficial, and
traditional in substituting our posing religion about Jesus for an authentic
relationship with Jesus as personified by Jesus Himself and prescribed in Holy
Scripture. We need to spend less time reading books about the book and
spend more time reading the book. Usually, books about the book don't try
to explain the book as intended in its inspiration; but rather rationalize
attempts to depart from the book to satisfy, again, our navelgazing, let's say
fallen, instincts.

5. Joshua 1 and
John 13:34-35 - If we don't get that, one wonders how the anything but heaven
we ever got ordained or on a church roll.

There's a lot
more that happened last October; but that's a preface to what follows and why I
am more energized/enabled for life and ministry than ever before even including
5/8/77.

@#$%

There's an
increasing epidemic that's cross-denominational - the unchecked assault on
clergy and churches (or using the Biblical metaphor, undershepherds of the
Good Shepherd and sheep).

While no one is
pure and perfect in every way and everyone needs Jesus to save 'em - except, of
course, sarcastically, for those who assault clergy - we often forget
discipline in the church is with an eye to redemption. In other words, we
call all people to confession and repentance for redemption. We do not
shoot our wounded; or, uh, at least, we're not supposed to... We're
supposed to protect His undershepherds
and sheep from those darkly influenced in a Romans 16:17-20 and Titus 3:10-11
kinda way.

Anyway, a denominational
executive tantamount to a geographically located bishop recently wrote this to
constituents/colleagues: "I don't know how things are where you are
serving, but in the center of the country, it is a rocky season for
pastors. We have had several pastors with decades of experience come to a
precipitous end of a call...And for those who are still hanging on, it is a
rough row to hoe."

Her diagnosis:
"Why is it so rough out there? I think there are several
contributing factors. Most Presbyterians did not grow up in the
Presbyterian church...[I trust there are parallels in other franchises]...yet
many of our churches continue to imagine that they do not really need to teach
their new elders anything about Reformed Theology and the polity that arises
from it. We continue to act like they should just know it and pastors get
cross-ways with their sessions."

True.

Continuing,
"Second, with several of our congregations leaving us for other
affiliations, it seems to have created an atmosphere where any authority that
the presbytery might once have had is being diminished. We may go to a
church and say our rules say 'this' and they reply with an attitude of 'make
me.'"

O.K., but that's
more of a testimony to the spinelessness of clergy/presbyteries/conferences/bishops/whatevers
than the actual authority that can be exerted. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they may
leave. So what? Is that any excuse for the butchering of...?
Are our ethics that
situational?

Continuing,
"Third, and most importantly, I think we have reached the tipping point in
many of our churches. The people who are in our sanctuaries on Sunday
morning look around and see that there are fewer and older people. They
remember all of the things that used to happen at church that have gone by the
wayside. They know in their guts that they need to change, but they do
not want to do so. Then the pastor gets up on Sunday morning and sits in
session meetings and tells them that they need to change. Again, they
don't want to. Instead of deciding that it is time to change themselves,
they are deciding that the easiest way to stop having to think about change is
to get rid of the person who is talking about change. So they fire
their..."

Sure.

Never underestimate
the control needs of people who long for the way things never were or maybe
were but are no more.

Never
underestimate the control needs of people whose relationship with Jesus is
coincidental at best.

Never
underestimate the control needs of people who really don't care what Jesus or
the Bible say if it collides with their fallen instincts.

Never
underestimate the control needs of people who will bite, bruise, beat, and
butcher if their control needs are frustrated.

Never underestimate
the cowardice of too many in the face of such bold control needs.

Yes, there is
more to it than the bishop said; but the bishop is pretty good at peeling the
onion that ultimately exposes...evil at the core of all of this meanness,
madness, and misery from the world that has now pounced upon clergy and
poisoned churches.

@#$%

Which gets me to
Henry and St. James.

Henry is a church
in my franchise (PCUSA) that my presbytery (local "governing" body of
churches in a geographical area), so far, has failed to hold accountable for
the emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and vocational rape of their most
recent pastor by a very few seizing control over the vast majority.

St. James is a
neighboring Roman Catholic Church in Belvidere, Illinois that has
a real bishop who, so far, has failed to confront a very few making
life miserable for the vast majority while dragging the priest's name
through the mud of fallen instincts.

Here's the
kicker.

In both cases, at
the eye of the hurricane is only a handful of...

Help 'em, Jesus,
because nobody else is!

In both cases,
everyone knows who...

And in both
cases, the priest and pastor are being hung out to...while the assaults
continue unabated.

Way to go,
brothers/sisters!

Talk about
gutlessness.

The reputations
of a priest and pastor - not to mention the scattering of the sheep - are being
ruined and their prospects for the future diminished if not destroyed because
neither "bishop" has the, uh, uh, uh, courage to esteem the undershepherds and call
the miscreants to confession and repentance for redemption; or, uh, apart from
confession and repentance, uh, excommunication/removal.

I'm trying to get
an audience with St. James' bishop.

I will ask some
tough questions of "us" at the next stated presbytery meeting.

I'd rather be
crucified for commission than damned for omission.

@#$%

Anybody remember
Niemoller ("They came for the...and I didn't speak up because I wasn't
a...Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up!')?

What's happening
in Henry and at St. James is much bigger than a pastor and a priest.

It's an Ephesians
6:10ff. thing.

It's even bigger
than that.

Our commissions
and omissions related to brothers/sisters being butchered in/under/by any
circumstance by anyone measure our relationship with Jesus.

Jesus said,
"As you do it or don't
do it for them, you do it or
don't do it for Me!"

Ain't no middle
ground.

No such thing as
an "innocent bystander" in the Kingdom.

We is or we ain't with Jesus when it
comes to our neighbors: "Do unto them as...As you do it...Love each other
just as much as I have...").

Those are not
just throwaway lines for some collect in a religious observance about Jesus.

Those are
commands from Jesus to distinguish authentics from posers.

If we just stand
by and let...

Are we that
spineless...selfish...unfaithful?

@#$%

It does not honor
our Lord to allow anyone's reputation, vocation, livelihood, and so on to be
tarnished, threatened, or terminated by identifiable miscreants and just...

I know.

I had a friend
who called from Detroit many years ago.

He said, "A
member of the church is saying things about me that are just not true.
Everybody knows it. But no one will do anything about it. I feel
like snakes are in my bed, in my head, in my..."